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DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this post are solely my personal views. If anyone wishes to challenge them, please do so but in constructive ways. Thank You

It made headlines in August 2017, Neymar leaves FC Barcelona and joins Paris St.Germain (PSG) for 222 million Euros!

Yes! Euros! 222 Million Euros!

Makes one wonder, No?
Well, it does make me wonder.

Yes, we do know that Nasser Al-Khelaifi owns Paris St.Germain through Oryx Sports Investment and that PSG has known to have purchased players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, David Luiz, Marquinhos and Lucas Rabiot as well as Angel, Di Maria, Blaise Matuidi, Marco Veratti, Thiago Motta, Kevin Trapp, Julian Draxler and Yohan Cabaye.

Ronaldinho? Well, he played there around 15 years ago before he joined FC Barcelona.

Point of discussion here is Neymar’s fee of 222 million Euros.
How is such a price tag justified?

First, lets take a look at the most expensive transfers in the history of football:

Pos.

Player

Clubs

Year

Fee

1

Neymar

Barcelona – PSG

2017

€222m

=2

Ousmane Dembele

Dortmund – Borussia Dortmund

2017

€105m (+€45m)

=2

Paul Pogba

Juventus – Manchester United

2016

€105m

4

Gareth Bale

Tottenham – Real Madrid

2013

€100.8m

5

Cristiano Ronaldo

Manchester United – Real Madrid

2009

€94m

6

Gonzalo Higuain

Napoli – Juventus

2016

€90m

7

Neymar

Santos – Barcelona

2013

€86.2m

8

Romelu Lukaku

Everton – Manchester United

2017

€84.8m

9

Luis Suarez

Liverpool – Barcelona

2014

€82.3m

10

James Rodriguez

Monaco – Real Madrid

2014

€80m

11

Alvaro Morata

Real Madrid – Chelsea

2017

€78.9m

12

Zinedine Zidane

Juventus – Real Madrid

2001

€77.5m

13

Kevin De Bruyne

Wolfsburg – Manchester City

2015

€75m

14

Angel Di Maria

Real Madrid – Manchester United

2014

€74.6m

15

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Inter – Barcelona

2009

€69.5m

16

Raheem Sterling

Liverpool – Manchester City

2015

€69.1m

17

Kaka

AC Milan – Real Madrid

2009

€65m

18

Edinson Cavani

Napoli- PSG

2013

€64.5m

19

David Luiz

Chelsea – PSG

2014

€62.5m

20

Angel Di Maria

Manchester United – PSG

2015

€61.6m

21

Oscar

Chelsea – Shanghai SIPG

2016

€60.3m

22

Luis Figo

Barcelona – Real Madrid

2000

€60m

23

Fernando Torres

Liverpool – Chelsea

2011

€59m

24

Hulk

Zenit – Shanghai SIPG

2016

€58.6m

25

Benjamin Mendy

Monaco – Manchester City

2017

€58.2m

26

John Stones

Everton – Manchester City

2016

€58m

27

Kyle Walker

Tottenham – Manchester City

2017

€56.7m

28

Hernan Crespo

Parma – Lazio

2000

€55m

29

Alexandre Lacazette

Lyon – Arsenal

2017

€52.4m

30

Gianluigi Buffon

Parma – Juventus

2001

€52m

31

Eliaquim Mangala

Valencia – Manchester City

2014

€51.7m

=32

Alex Teixeira

Shakhtar Dontesk – Jiangsu Suning

2016

€50m

=32

Bernardo Silva

Monaco – Manchester City

2017

€50m

34

Anthony Martial

Monaco – Manchester United

2015

€49.3m

35

Gylfi Sigurdsson

Swansea – Everton

2017

€49.2m

36

Christian Vieri

Lazio – Inter

1999

€49m

37

Gaizka Mendieta

Valencia – Lazio

2001

€48m

38

Mesut Ozil

Real Madrid – Arsenal

2013

€47m

=39

Juan Sebastian Veron

Lazio – Manchester United

2001

€46m

=39

Rio Ferdinand

Leeds – Manchester United

2002

€46m

=39

Ronaldo

Inter – Real Madrid

2002

€46m

=39

Juan Mata

Chelsea – Manchester United

2014

€46m

=39

Douglas Costa

Bayern Munich – Juventus

2017

€46m

44

Christian Benteke

Aston Villa – Liverpool

2015

€45.8m

=45

James Rodriguez

Porto – Monaco

2013

€45m

=45

Joao Mario

Sporting CP – Inter

2016

€45m

=45

Granit Xhaka

Borussia Monchengladbach – Arsenal

2016

€45m

=45

Tiemoue Bakayoko

Monaco – Chelsea

2017

€45m

49

Nemanja Matic

Chelsea – Manchester United

2017

€44.7m

50

Leroy Sane

Schalke – Manchester City

2016

€44m

51

Andriy Shevchenko

AC Milan – Chelsea

2006

€43.9m

=52

Robinho

Real Madrid – Manchester City

2008

€43m

=52

Radamel Falcao

Atletico Madrid – Monaco

2013

€43m

54

Alexis Sanchez

Barcelona – Arsenal

2014

€42.5m

=55

Rui Costa

Fiorentina – AC Milan

2001

€42m

=55

Javier Pastore

Palermo – PSG

2011

€42m

=55

Thiago Silva

AC Milan – PSG

2012

€42m

=55

Jackson Martinez

Atletico Madrid – Guangzhou Evergrande

2016

€42m

=55

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Borussia Dortmund – Manchester United

2016

€42m

=55

Mohamed Salah

Roma – Liverpool

2017

€42m

=55

Leonardo Bonucci

Juventus – AC Milan

2017

€42m

=62

Lilian Thuram

Parma – Juventus

2001

€41.5m

=62

Corentin Tolisso

Lyon – Bayern Munich

2017

€41.5m

64

Andy Carroll

Newcastle – Liverpool

2011

€41.3m

=65

Pavel Nedved

Lazio – Juventus

2001

€41.2m

=65

Shkodran Mustafi

Valencia – Arsenal

2016

€41.2m

=65

Sadio Mane

Southampton – Liverpool

2016

€41.2m

=68

Roberto Firmino

Hoffenheim – Liverpool

2015

€41m

=69

Marc Overmars

Arsenal – Barcelona

2001

€41m

=70

David Villa

Valencia – Barcelona

2010

€40m

=70

Paulinho

Guangzhou Evergrande – Barcelona

2017

€40m

=70

Sergio Aguero

Atletico Madrid – Manchester City

2011

€40m

=70

Radamel Falcao

Porto – Atletico Madrid

2011

€40m

=70

Hulk

Porto – Zenit

2012

€40m

=70

Axel Witsel

Benfica – Zenit

2012

€40m

=70

Javi Martinez

Athletic Club – Bayern Munich

2012

€40m

=70

Eden Hazard

Lille – Chelsea

2012

€40m

=70

Fernandinho

Shakhtar Donetsk – Manchester City

2013

€40m

=70

Ederson

Benfica – Manchester City

2017

€40m

=70

Federico Bernardeschi

Fiorentina – Juventus

2017

€40m

81

David Luiz

PSG – Chelsea

2016

€39.6m

=82

Michy Batshuayi

Marseille – Chelsea

2016

€39m

=82

Antonio Rudiger

Roma – Chelsea

2017

€39m

84

Didier Drogba

Marseille – Chelsea

2004

€38.5m

=85

Michael Essien

Lyon – Chelsea

2005

€38m

=85

Fernando Torres

Atletico Madrid – Liverpool

2007

€38m

=85

Dimitar Berbatov

Tottenham – Manchester United

2008

€38m

=85

Gonzalo Higuain

Real Madrid – Napoli

2013

€38m

=85

Diego Costa

Atletico Madrid – Chelsea

2014

€38m

=85

Eric Bailly

Villarreal – Manchester United

2016

€38m

=85

Mats Hummels

Borussia Dortmund – Bayern Munich

2016

€38m

=85

Andre Silva

Porto – AC Milan

2017

€38m

=93

David Beckham

Manchester United – Real Madrid

2003

€37.5m

=93

Luke Shaw

Southampton – Manchester United

2014

€37.5m

95

Jackson Martinez

Porto – Atletico Madrid

2015

€37.1m

=96

Filippo Inzaghi

Juventus – AC Milan

2001

€37m

=96

Wayne Rooney

Everton – Manchester United

2004

€37m

=96

Edin Dzeko

Wolfsburg – Manchester City

2010

€37m

=96

Mario Gotze

Borussia Dortmund – Bayern Munich

2013

€37m

=96

Arturo Vidal

Juventus – Bayern Munich

2015

€37m

I know right! Pretty Expensive!
How much will Neymar earn at Paris St.Germain? 45 Million Euros per season.
Seriously?!

This is what it is. Sadly, the gap between different continents of the world exists. While more people die of drought, hunger, starvation, political lapse and conflict in Asia and Africa, the world of football is dancing and bathing in millions and billions of Dollars!

Manchester United made a big mistake of buying back Paul Pogba from Juventus Turin for 120 Million Dollars, and they received backlash from journalists over the amount of money paid, which should have gone to charity. Furthermore, with footballers earning insane amounts of money, they do pay taxes and pay money in charity and have given back a lot to their community. BUT, there are many whose families have been quite greedy and have never paid attention to anything but their greed. Take Emmanuel Adebayor’s case: He gave his family a mansion in Lome, Togo but when some greedy siblings started phishing money from him through lying, he had to shift his innocent younger siblings to England and France, and by helter skelter means, he either had to give them small businesses, pay for their education or keep them under his care. In short, greed is a killer indeed.

But what about Neymar’s case? FC Barcelona are suing him for a breach of contract. Will the transfer money shut them up?

NOT JUSTIFIED AT ALL!!

The fee is insane!! It will not only drive the football inflation up! Merit will be dead! Ticket prices will shoot up and since Neymar comes from a 3rd world country, his family cannot live in Brazil peacefully.

Current state of Neymar’s Brazilian fans

Have a look at Adriano Leite Ribeiro, what happened to him? Greed!

Neymar will no doubt perform well at PSG but he is now a traitor. Leaving FC Barcelona behind for no reason, even if Neymar will earn good, he has to pay taxes and for charity. In short, he can’t have it all because the greedy agents of football players and other intermediaries involved will actually cause the economic balloon of football to inflate til insane heights. Once it pops up, it will cause a meltdown of football clubs. All the big names, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris St. Germain, Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City, Glasgow Rangers, Celtic, Inter Milan, FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, AS Roma, Lazio, Liverpool, Chelsea, Napoli, CSKA Moscow, Sporting Lisbon, FC Porto, Galatasaray etc. will all face the economic meltdown.

Clubs cannot cover up the additional expenses that come afterwards. If most of that money went into just a transfer, then the agents will definitely be wanting more, tax authorities want more as well and that, intermediaries will charge their fees as well (Banks!).

What does UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations say about that? The regulations were made in 2011 as an effort to inhibit spending, stating that a team cannot spend too much more than what it earns, without facing any sanctions.

Paris St. Germain club president and owner Nasser Al Khelaifi believes his club won’t have an issue turning a profit.

“When you consider Neymar as a brand, maybe it won’t seem so expensive. I’m sure we’ll make more money than we’ve paid,” he stated in a press conference when Neymar was unveiled, referring to ticket revenues, championship earnings and new sponsorship opportunities.

His transfer fee in USD$ is 263 million

Like Seriously? can a welfare dependent Frenchman be able to buy front row tickets at Parc Des Princes just to watch Neymar play? Maybe Al Khelaifi forgot economics or is simply abusing his wealth.

Marc Ganis, co-founder of Sportscorp (a sports business firm), is skeptical about Neymar’s transfer and money associated with it. He believes that it does not make any financial sense. Though, these superstars are outliers regarding their high value, but is their value really worth a value? or is it just an inflated price tag sellers put on to earn huge amounts? Metrics like a player’s performance, statistics, age, business appeal and reputation help collect data points that can really quantify the true price of a player, but since perception matters more than reality, the only measure of worth that counts is what someone is willing to pay, as put by Rory Smith in The New York Times.

Smith cited the case of the French midfielder Moussa Sissoko. When he was playing at Newcastle United last season, the club believed he was worth around USD$20 million. When La Liga powerhouse Real Madrid suggested that they were prepared to pay twice that amount, Newcastle increased its valuation and later transferred him to Tottenham Hotspur for close to USD$40 million.

Another example is that of Anthony Martial. Manchester United agreed a USD$ 46 million deal in 2015 for the former AS Monaco sensation, with options reaching a total of USD$ 75 million. Though he had to prove himself a lot, at the age of 19, he had 15 goals across the last two seasons at Old Trafford. Despite the fair statistics, that amount of money wasn’t justified either, and even former Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal acknowledged the risk and labelled the price tag as “ridiculous” and a “reflection of the crazy world we live in.”

Neymar’s transfer fee is economically dis-balancing, and sorry to say, the Sheikhs of the G.C.C nations are very unethical. The money they paid could have saved a country, a continent, a million lives and even the world.

I’m not saying I hate the Arab Sheikhs, I am saying that they should spend that kind of money ethically and in much generous ways to help bring equality and equity in the world.

Sorry to say, today’s world of football has become quite unstable. Whatever happens next, billionaire owners investors will take notice and will try bargaining as well. When the time comes for them to spend their own money on players, they will continue to try to determine what counts as a fair price and even if they have to bargain, they will because no one wants to blow money away without any sense.